“Had they no crowns, they would not be worth the cracking,” said a cheerful voice behind us; and there stood Mistress Walgrave herself. “Come, husband,” said she, soothingly, “be not too hard on Humphrey, he is but a lad. He serves us well most days, when the Queen is not to the front. I warrant thee, Robert, thou wast a merry ’prentice once thyself.”
“That I never was,” said Master Walgrave, with an acid face; “but get in with you, sirrah, and to bed. I had a mind to leave you on the other side of the door this night, to cool your hot blood.” And he bolted the door, whilst I slunk up to my garret.
Peter Stoupe was already asleep and snoring; and as he lay clean across the bed, I must needs arouse him to take his own side and make room for me.
“What, Humphrey!—I give God thanks to see thee back,” said he, drowsily; “I feared something was amiss. There was a rumour that you lodged this night in Newgate.”
“You listened to a lie, then,” said I.
“And it is not true, is it, that you naughtily assaulted a gentleman of the Court?”
“And what if I did?” I demanded.
“Alas! Humphrey, think of the trouble it is like to bring on our good master and mistress. Have you no thought for anyone but yourself? Yet, I give thanks thou art safe, so—far—my—good—Humpi—” and here he rolled off to sleep and left me in quiet.
Yet not in peace, for I could not sleep that night for many an hour. For my life seemed to have taken a strange turn round since morning. Before to-day I had thought the ’prentice’s life the merriest life in the world. I had cared for nobody, and it had troubled me little if nobody cared for me. Strange that now I felt like a greyhound in the leash, longing to be anywhere but where I was.
Besides, I had more solid grounds for wakefulness. However well to-day I had given my pursuers the slip, I guessed I had not heard the last of Captain Merriman and his merry men. They would find me out; and I might yet become, as Peter had said, a lodger in Newgate, and, worse than that, a cause of trouble and distress to good Master Walgrave and his lady.